Irish Black cattle were developed with forward thinking progressive breeding of an entirely closed herd. For over fifty years the foundation herd of the Irish Black was tightly controlled and strictly regulated in order to develop top beef performance

traits required by commercial cattlemen. As an example, cows were required to wean off calves that were at least 60% of their own body weight or they were culled from the purebred herd.

In 2006, during the first years we ran Irish Black purebreds on the Diamond H, we weaned a 172 day old calf at 620 lbs., his three year old mother weighed 920 lbs. that day. This particular year our ranch saw extreme drought, yet, she still brought in a calf at an actual weaning ratio of 67%! And yes--this young mother was pregnant and calved the following year in our first set of calvers. Superior efficiency and excellent fertility are a few more of the many impressive breed traits developed over the years in Irish Black cattle. A breed history of performance regulated development makes it possible to consistently achieve these kinds of successes with Irish Black genetics.

Irish Black genetics offer consistency, uniformity, and predictability to commercial operators that use Irish Black Bulls. Years of careful scientific line-breeding for top commercial beef traits means that Irish Black Bulls are unmatched as sires in today's cattle industry. Simply put, Irish Black bulls have real sire power when bred to other breeds of beef cattle, resulting in calves with true hybrid vigor exhibiting their sires top Irish Black traits.

Irish Blacks huge success in today's beef industry is thanks to decades of work developing their homozygous genes. Irish Black Bulls are like brilliantly engineered tools, replacing two or three bulls in the breeding pasture and siring a better quality calf.